Top teams worldwide for social media
(combined Twitter and Facebook totals)

RANK

TEAM

TOTAL

1

FC Barcelona

13,540,055

2

Real Madrid

13,255,196

3

Manchester United

12,157,901

4

Los Angeles Lakers

9,577,996

5

Arsenal

5,903,251

Despite the continuing meteoric growth of sports on social media outlets, particularly Facebook and Twitter, most North American sports properties remain well behind top European and Asian soccer clubs in terms of global followers.

Of the 20 individual sports teams in terms of largest combined Facebook and Twitter audiences, nine of them, including the top three and seven of the top eight, are soccer teams from England, Spain or Turkey.

“If there’s anything to be learned from what’s happening abroad, it’s that these [soccer] teams are global brands,” said Bryan Perez, NBA Digital senior vice president and general manager. NBA Digital, a partnership between the league and Turner Sports, collaborates with NBA executives, notably marketing vice president Melissa Rosenthal Brenner, on the property’s social media efforts.

“They have truly vibrant global followings, exactly the kind of thing we’re trying to build here, and social media, of course, is going to be a key tool in that,” Perez said.

Fenway Sports Group, owner of Liverpool FC, which sports a Facebook following of more than 5.2 million, said marketing and commercial elements are not necessarily as overt on social media with many European soccer clubs.

“A lot of what’s happening there is content-based, a lot of unique content, and the players are really involved,” said Billy Hogan, managing director for FSG’s Fenway Sports Management and a key liaison to Liverpool FC and the club’s head of technology, Andrew Robinson.

“They’ve taken extra pains to make sure the social media is primarily about engaging fans, as opposed to it being more marketing related. In fact, they don’t market as much as they maybe could. But they’ve really grasped that it’s one thing … to have someone sign up and follow, but yet another to keep them engaged.”

Back in the U.S., another set of emerging dynamics is at play. The NBA, as it has for some time, holds the largest following of the major leagues with more than 37.8 million total fans and followers when combining the Twitter and Facebook audiences for the central league feed and those of the 30 individual teams.

But numbers and rankings are changing almost by the day. Major League Baseball’s total Facebook and Twitter audience of more than 20.6 million has more than doubled in size just since the end of the 2010 World Series, and projects to be north of 30 million by this fall. The more even balance among team-level followings in MLB and the NFL show a more localized social media fan development strategy than the more league-centric strategies shown by the NBA and others.

“We have an overarching strategy that we want Facebook users to become baseball fans, and not necessarily the other way around,” said Bob Bowman, MLB Advanced Media president and chief executive. “And beyond sheer numbers, we want to grow our [social media] users in two dimensions, both qualitatively and quantitatively, and be truly engaged.”

Clubs’ social media followings are getting large enough that they are dictating long-term, high-level strategic thought on the same level given to traditional broadband and TV programming efforts.

“You’re going to see every league realize that … these are sort of parallel cable networks,” said Michael Lazerow, chief executive of Buddy Media, which has counseled many teams and leagues and built tools for their social media endeavors. “That means you have to program against them with content in a concerted, dedicated way. We definitely continue to move into uncharted waters here.”

Still, debate within the industry percolates as to what social media audience sizes really mean beyond bragging rights.

“Whatever you do in social media ideally has to be tied to some kind of measurable business objective,” said Pat Coyle, president of Coyle Media, which also counsels sports properties and has created SportsFanGraph.com, a real-time ranking of social media followers for teams and leagues. “Whether it’s selling tickets, building an audience for sponsorship or whatever, there needs to be a stronger, direct link.”

MLB

RANK

LEAGUE/TEAM

TWITTER

FACEBOOK

TOTAL

—

MLB

1,186,103

321,018

1,507,121

1

N.Y. Yankees

352,191

3,548,692

3,900,883

2

Boston

64,582

2,292,832

2,357,414

3

Philadelphia

618,503

834,722

1,453,225

4

Chicago Cubs

37,049

1,143,409

1,180,458

5

San Francisco

115,534

908,811

1,024,345

6

Atlanta

60,090

662,383

722,473

7

St. Louis

20,957

688,506

709,463

8

L.A. Dodgers

49,085

593,053

642,138

9

Detroit

8,935

595,491

604,426

10

Chicago White Sox

18,409

583,393

601,802

11

Texas

34,982

565,964

600,946

12

Minnesota

9,162

564,309

573,471

13

N.Y.Mets

25,017

375,760

400,777

14

Milwaukee

15,807

357,980

373,787

15

Cincinnati

8,156

340,265

348,421

16

Cleveland

9,560

332,108

341,668

17

Seattle

19,287

301,619

320,906

18

Colorado

10,757

283,627

294,384

19

Tampa Bay

19,480

270,082

289,562

20

Toronto

32,286

249,529

281,815

21

Houston

8,406

271,852

280,258

22

L.A. Angels

16,319

249,052

265,371

23

Oakland

4,894

254,156

259,050

24

Baltimore

16,091

234,827

250,918

25

San Diego

5,968

239,469

245,437

26

Kansas City

18,661

197,670

216,331

27

Pittsburgh

7,647

171,741

179,388

28

Florida

5,350

150,390

155,740

29

Arizona

10,277

126,288

136,565

30

Washington

11,610

84,422

96,032

TOTALS

2,821,155

17,793,420

20,614,575

NBA

RANK

LEAGUE/TEAM

TWITTER

FACEBOOK

TOTAL

—

NBA

2,464,557

8,234,810

10,699,367

1

L.A. Lakers

1,944,384

7,633,612

9,577,996

2

Boston

163,676

3,949,904

4,113,580

3

Miami

140,828

2,099,736

2,240,564

4

Chicago

112,249

1,949,103

2,061,352

5

Orlando

1,061,001

771,877

1,832,878

6

N.Y. Knicks

93,409

806,243

899,652

7

Cleveland

65,208

669,770

734,978

8

San Antonio

56,743

612,260

669,003

9

Denver

41,123

530,254

571,377

10

Dallas

48,921

439,799

488,720

11

Phoenix

61,031

425,986

487,017

12

Oklahoma City

38,075

371,321

409,396

13

Houston

42,415

306,261

348,676

14

Portland

32,600

252,356

284,956

15

Detroit

26,226

251,026

277,252

16

Utah

36,090

229,750

265,840

17

Toronto

30,693

204,690

235,383

18

GoldenState

25,700

203,337

229,037

19

Philadelphia

31,229

154,015

185,244

20

Milwaukee

22,524

137,442

159,966

21

New Jersey

38,782

103,223

142,005

22

Atlanta

21,968

119,081

141,049

23

Sacramento

23,295

116,935

140,230

24

L.A. Clippers

34,475

77,865

112,340

25

Indiana

22,787

84,273

107,060

26

Washington

25,563

77,556

103,119

27

Minnesota

18,524

79,813

98,337

28

Charlotte

20,524

60,939

81,463

29

Memphis

23,882

55,419

79,301

30

New Orleans

26,140

33,912

60,052

TOTALS

6,794,622

31,042,568

37,837,190

NHL

RANK

LEAGUE/TEAM

TWITTER

FACEBOOK

TOTAL

—

NHL

570,605

1,491,130

2,061,735

1

Montreal

124,808

641,313

766,121

2

Chicago

65,830

698,308

764,138

3

Boston

39,875

577,970

617,845

4

Pittsburgh

80,386

522,482

602,868

5

Philadelphia

43,925

518,549

562,474

6

Detroit

54,049

502,026

556,075

7

Vancouver

86,485

364,941

451,426

8

Toronto

48,679

378,764

427,443

9

Washington

39,247

305,748

344,995

10

N.Y. Rangers

34,212

242,980

277,192

11

Colorado

18,900

228,201

247,101

12

SanJose

29,197

206,652

235,849

13

Buffalo

24,663

195,921

220,584

14

New Jersey

22,684

165,880

188,564

15

Edmonton

41,818

127,345

169,163

16

Minnesota

19,149

126,285

145,434

17

Los Angeles

27,535

110,674

138,209

18

St. Louis

22,479

115,501

137,980

19

Anaheim

19,727

118,138

137,865

20

Carolina

14,908

115,837

130,745

21

Tampa Bay

18,949

109,923

128,872

22

Dallas

20,546

100,457

121,003

23

Ottawa

17,579

89,879

107,458

24

Calgary

37,492

61,943

99,435

25

Nashville

14,014

59,650

73,664

26

Phoenix

10,962

46,073

57,035

27

Columbus

14,055

42,859

56,914

28

N.Y. Islanders

10,629

32,969

43,598

29

Florida

11,332

32,074

43,406

30

Atlanta

11,895

30,574

42,469

TOTALS

1,596,614

8,361,046

9,957,660

NFL

RANK

LEAGUE/TEAM

TWITTER

FACEBOOK

TOTAL

—

NFL

2,033,992

3,002,111

5,036,103

1

Dallas

72,466

2,573,707

2,646,173

2

Pittsburgh

83,925

2,209,866

2,293,791

3

New England

87,209

1,935,500

2,022,709

4

GreenBay

71,436

1,500,069

1,571,505

5

Chicago

45,988

1,498,398

1,544,386

6

New Orleans

49,175

1,292,911

1,342,086

7

Indianapolis

8,831

1,066,858

1,075,689

8

Minnesota

47,351

918,788

966,139

9

Philadelphia

33,945

904,106

938,051

10

N.Y. Jets

134,346

747,875

882,221

11

Oakland

53,981

784,584

838,565

12

N.Y. Giants

10,668

789,205

799,873

13

San Diego

58,340

720,539

778,879

14

Miami

47,843

643,620

691,463

15

San Francisco

49,903

597,615

647,518

16

Denver

44,505

595,507

640,012

17

Washington

19,130

555,803

574,933

18

Baltimore

32,901

501,231

534,132

19

Seattle

34,587

460,163

494,750

20

Kansas City

30,109

408,098

438,207

21

Cincinnati

38,190

386,092

424,282

22

Detroit

21,443

316,817

338,260

23

Cleveland

32,650

265,944

298,594

24

Houston

22,966

259,056

282,022

25

Tampa Bay

18,287

246,987

265,274

26

Arizona

5,614

245,479

251,093

27

Buffalo

24,635

221,201

245,836

28

Tennessee

30,663

204,755

235,418

29

Carolina

15,956

205,144

221,100

30

Atlanta

43,495

160,486

203,981

31

Jacksonville

13,692

160,422

174,114

32

St. Louis

15,241

90,754

105,995

TOTALS

3,333,463

26,469,691

29,803,154

Worldwide
teams

RANK

TEAM

TWITTER

FACEBOOK

TOTAL

1

FC Barcelona

660,378

12,879,677

13,540,055

2

Real Madrid

1,441,758

11,813,438

13,255,196

3

Manchester United

0

12,157,901

12,157,901

4

Los Angeles Lakers

1,944,384

7,633,612

9,577,996

5

Arsenal

567,179

5,336,072

5,903,251

6

Galatasaray

101,801

5,203,835

5,305,636

7

Liverpool

4,109

5,260,015

5,264,124

8

Chelsea

170,095

4,898,204

5,068,299

9

Boston Celtics

163,676

3,949,904

4,113,580

10

New York Yankees

352,191

3,548,692

3,900,883

11

Fenerbahçe

0

3,790,151

3,790,151

12

AC Milan

60,604

3,417,345

3,477,949

13

Dallas Cowboys

72,466

2,573,707

2,646,173

14

Boston Red Sox

64,582

2,292,832

2,357,414

15

Pittsburgh Steelers

83,925

2,209,866

2,293,791

16

Miami Heat

140,828

2,099,736

2,240,564

17

Chicago Bulls

112,249

1,949,103

2,061,352

18

New England Patriots

87,209

1,935,500

2,022,709

19

Orlando Magic

1,061,001

771,877

1,832,878

20

Green Bay Packers

71,436

1,500,069

1,571,505

Leagues and Properties

LEAGUE/PROPERTY

TWITTER

FACEBOOK

TOTAL

NBA

2,464,557

8,234,810

10,699,367

WWE

311,614

5,122,833

5,434,447

UFC

239,423

5,157,739

5,397,162

NFL

2,033,992

3,002,111

5,036,103

IOC

53,796

2,120,292

2,174,088

NHL

570,605

1,491,130

2,061,735

NASCAR

116,039

1,421,220

1,537,259

MLB

1,186,103

321,018

1,507,121

WTA

17,482

752,335

769,817

ATP World Tour

62,859

383,151

446,010

USOC/Team USA

13,004

325,247

338,251

PGA Tour

73,339

261,710

335,049

NHRA

10,532

217,313

227,845

MLS

20,877

171,408

192,285

Formula One

88,406

41,481

129,887

Indy Racing League

19,966

37,874

57,840

About the researchThe charts presented here show the number of Twitter “followers” and Facebook “likes” for team and league sites as of April 19. The teams are ranked by their combined number of fans across the two sites.

The sites tracked were those sites identified as “official sites” by the leagues and teams. Many teams do have multiple sites — official and unofficial — used to reach fans, including sites created by front-office personnel.

Player sites also provide points of access, but for this listing, only “official sites” were monitored.

Numbers listed reflect what was reported on each individual site. For the league/property and worldwide teams charts, teams were identified for listing by the rankings available from SportsFanGraph.com, and the individual sites’ updated numbers were then taken directly from the listed sites.